Thursday, October 4, 2012

10%

Life Church has been doing a series on money management for the past 4 weeks. Certainly not a bad thing for a college student like myself to learn more about. Paul and Shari did a wonderful job of instilling the value of saving in me at a young age. From the time I began to receive an allowance (a monthly stipend of my age at the time didn't really go that far...), they required that 10% be placed in the offering plate on Sunday and 20% went to my savings account. That left 70% for me to do with what I pleased.

I'm still a great saver. I've saved up enough so that I won't be stressed out when I have an insurance bill for my car and the financial pull of a gas tank next year. I'm comfortable. But I fell off the tithing bandwagon probably a year ago. I owe God a lot, not just in the way of money, but also in the way of abilities and talents.

Craig Groeschel's comments about the importance of tithing and what I've been reading in Steven Furtick's "Greater" (thanks Tyler :) ) led me to tithe 10% of my bank account the other night. It was a scary amount, but I read somewhere that "you can't out give God." Even the literature I've been reading in my English survey class has a theme of the leader being the one who can give the most generous gift. In "Beowulf", Lord Hrothgar shows his superior status by spreading lavish gifts about the hall of Heorot. Sure, my small gift to Life Church may seem monumental to me, but God is the richest being I know. He will bless me to demonstrate His power, maybe not monetarily, but in a way that can't be mistaken. Owing money to anybody is an awful feeling, but owing money to God? Especially when my entire bank account is His in the first place? I was sinning.

I'll never be out of debt to God. I mean, I already owe Him my life. But a small part of my life is entrusting my money, rather HIS money, to do His work. Everything is 100% His, but He only requires 10% from A Very Lucky Girl.